Nevertheless, I suppose the alderman's common-sense and native shrewdness
are not without their efficacy in producing a general tendency towards
the right; and, no doubt, the decisions of the police court are quite as
often just as those of any other court whatever.
June 11th.--I walked with J----- yesterday to Bebington Church. When I
first saw this church, nearly two years since, it seemed to me the
fulfilment of my ideal of an old English country church. It is not so
satisfactory now, although certainly a venerable edifice. There used
some time ago to be ivy all over the tower; and at my first view of it,
there was still a little remaining on the upper parts of the spire. But
the main roots, I believe, were destroyed, and pains were taken to clear
away the whole of the ivy, so that now it is quite bare,--nothing but
homely gray stone, with marks of age, but no beauty. The most curious
thing about the church is the font. It is a massive pile, composed of
five or six layers of freestone in an octagon shape, placed in the angle
formed by the projecting side porch and the wall of the church, and
standing under a stained-glass window. The base is six or seven feet
across, and it is built solidly up in successive steps, to the height of
about six feet,--an octagonal pyramid, with the basin of the font
crowning the pile hewn out of the solid stone, and about a foot in
diameter and the same in depth.
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